A recent business trend is to reduce help desk traffic by promoting the Internet as a way for customers, and individuals within a corporation, to access information. The Internet is particularly suited for this because of its global reach and relatively easy accessibility.
One prior art method of providing customer service is by posting a question in a Question and Answer (Q&A) list, and waiting until either service personnel or other customers provide an answer by posting it to the same Q&A list. The answer may or may not be correct.
Another prior art Internet based customer service solution is posting a large "frequently asked questions" (FAQ) list that answers most typical questions.
While using the Internet reduces costs, for most prior art systems it reduces customer satisfaction. The customer does not feel that he or she is receiving individual attention. Furthermore, there is no assurance that the answer is correct for the specific situation in which the customer finds himself or herself.
One prior art method of providing more interactive customer service on the Internet is a web based help-desk. The customer logs on to a "help page," that is separate from the area in which the customer had trouble. The customer then fills out a help request, including answering a series of questions regarding the problem. While the customer is connected to this help page on the Internet, the customer's computer system sends configuration information to service technicians. The service technicians evaluate the data from the computer and the help request. The service technicians then call the customer to discuss the problem.
However, this requires the same amount of help desk traffic as a direct 800 number help desk. Additionally, filling out the help request is a chore that takes considerable time. Furthermore, some customers do not like having the contents of their personal computers surveyed, especially if at least some sections of that computer are not relevant to the problem, and contain private information. In addition, the customer must leave the web page on which he or she encountered the problem to log on to the help page to start this help process. This interrupts normal work, and is a hassle.